by When the success was measured by the volume of screaming children, the business was booming positively on my recent visit to the Wicksteed Park.
I was in the beloved amusement park in Kettering and watched a few dozen children and their parents, who prepared on a swing trip in the chair in frightened joy. Her adrenaline storm was temporary, but they took part in a ritual that took more than 100 years.
Since the 1920s, people have traveled through the country to swing, slide, slide and spray the revolutionary amusements of the park.
And they are really revolutionary: The founder Charles Wicksteed designed many of the trips himself. Until today, they will find its name on playground fluctuations and winners through the country.
But now, more than ever, Wicksteed and other traditional themed parks are amazing fights.
And in the past few months, some of the wobbling on the routes have completely derailed. Why so?
The theme parks close their doors
In November last year, West Cornwall Flambards’ beloved theme park closed its doors after 48 years.
The bosses referred to “rising costs and a steady decline in the number of visitors” because the main causes for the sudden closure of the park.
Five months later, Wales announced the largest themed park that he had closed his doors. At his heyday, 400,000 people would go through the goals in the Oakwood theme park in Pembrokeshire.
“Relentless economic challenges” ultimately killed the country’s flagship after 38 years in the company.
The Blackpool Pier Company, which belongs to the city’s South, Central and North Piers, recorded a loss of 2023 before taxes of 335,652 GBP compared to a profit before taxes of 354.231 GBP in 2022.
The challenges include the continued improvement and maintenance of the old structures, while the overhead costs and the minimum wage climb also have pressure on profitability.
Similar attractions by the sea, such as B. Dreamland in Margate, have swirled live concerts to stay over water.
Only this week, Fantasy Island in Skegness announced that it would reduce a five -day week in the low season and close its doors every day to save costs.
The bosses also had to reduce their seasonal workforce by 15 percent, some due to the increasing costs for national insurance contributions.
So far, so dark. But like a roller coaster ride, the success of the British theme parks has been up and down over the years.
In 2010, Alton Towers and Thorpe Park recorded their highest number of visitors. Dust collected dust during the pandemic. Is the current doldrum in the smaller themed parks of Great Britain entirely due to economic factors, or are there other forces in the game?
A perfect storm of the challenges
“We have to struggle with the fact that the same number of paid visitors were hit as pre-pandemic,” says Kelly Richardson, managing director of Wicksteed Park, zooming over our heads as a flowing dangling leg. It refers to the cost of living as the main cause.
“When people make a difficult choice between food and heat, what is going on is money for days.”
The Wicksteed Park is the economic bumps acute as giants such as Legoland or the Merlin Parks by Alton Towers and Thorpe Park without multimillions -pound company.
The non -profit trust recently used a grant of 250,000 GBP to recruit a fundraising team to compensate for the books.
“We are an energetic user,” says Richardson. “There was an intensive energy relief scheme that the government published. It supported many industries that were recognized as high energy consumers. However, theme parks were not included.”
During the pandemic, Wicksteed avoided the breakdown with the loss of 115 jobs after administration.
What makes Wicksteed unique is that you don’t have to pay to enter. With 25 trips over 281 hectares of the class II parking landscape found, a grandparent can enter free of charge and only pay £ 3 per pop for their grandchildren to take a few trips.
While Wicksteed’s annual balance of 800,000 visitors sounds like a healthy number, only about 200,000 customers pay. If cash is no longer found, the company may have no choice but to start entering the park in order to meet the annual maintenance costs of 1.4 million GBP.
There are other challenges. Two consecutive poor summer for the weather in 2023 and 2024 did business, while expensive flood damage and tree stakes caused by storms have become more regular events. Richardson says she has also observed broader changes in behavior since pandemic.
“People don’t seem to plan as much family days as before. We have rushes lakes on site, which is a large shopping center. It is always busy. People go out, but not necessarily the same types of day they did before.”
When we Wicksteed’s well -kept gardens hike through the Wicky Bear Show, which is temporarily closed due to the costs for entertainment employees. Otherwise, his old -fashioned staled wars run as usual. There is a water shaft, a miniature steam train and the mandatory carousel, the cup and saucer and dodgeems.
I could see why the comedian James Acaster (a Kettering Local) made a showstop cake inspired by Wicksteed when he performed Celebrities bake 2019.
The place has a simple charm and I made a mental note to bring my son here when he is a bit older. But then I had another thought. If he is at the age of roller coaster ride, he may ask me to deduct the M1 one or two intersections early so that we can visit another theme park, only 22 miles south of Kettering.
Universal rule? It could really happen
Since some of the smaller themed parks of Britain are fighting for survival, one of the largest entertainment companies in the world is preparing to open a themed park on the British soil.
Universal Studios bought a 500 hectare property south of Bedford, where it plans to build a theme park at a price of 50 billion pounds with a planned opening date of 2031.
While details are thin on site, it is expected to include the most modern technology with some of its largest franchise companies: the characters of Nintendo, Harry Potter And Hub Are a couple in his books.
Universal has the advantage of optimizing its attractions for the current generation. The company also has a lot of experience in the manufacture of weatherproof inner trips (Drizzly Osaka, Sengte Orlando) and gives it the upper hand of Wicksteed, in which the daily number of visitors decrease when weather apps even show a small raincade.
I am concerned about Wicksteed and all the traditional themed parks of Great Britain, since attention changes, the technologies accelerate, young people change habits and fan bases grow for recognized global brands (of course with all respect for Wicky Bear).
But hey. At the moment, during my visit everyone at Wicksteed had a good time and with the sun the number of visitors was not bad. And Wicksteed has one thing that Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Legoland and Universal – and further near Disney – can never say.
“My son was here and went into the roller coaster ride in the roller coaster in a row, just because he can,” laughs Richardson, when a family in the Dinosaural valley lifted in harmony and grinned in a way that nobody grins while looking at a phone or visiting a shopping center for the afternoon.
